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Indonesia Thomas Cup hero passes away

After battling liver cancer for sometime, an Indonesian badminton hero who took home the 1984 Thomas Cup, Hadibowo Sutanto, passed away at the age of 52 at Medistra Hospital in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The former national shuttler, who was born on July 4, 1958 in Tegal, Central Java, had been undergoing cancer treatment in Jakarta and Singapore since January.

However, his condition became worse since Saturday last week.

1984 has been highly regarded as his golden year, as the mens doubles specialist partnered Christian Hadinata, to win the Thailand, Indonesia and Dutch Opens.

The Hadibowo and Christian duo reached its peak performance at the 1984 finals of the Thomas Cup badminton championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Indonesia overcame China 3-2.

At the time, Indonesia was lagging 1-2 behind China, as Liem Swie King and Icuk Sugiarto were defeated by Luan Jin and Yang Yang, respectively. The pair tied 2-2 for Indonesia as they calmly took He Sangquan and Jiang Guoliang, 18-14,15-10.

Hadibowo was remembered by former shuttler Lius Pongoh mostly for his "resillience on the court".

"[On the court] he never gave up easily," recalled Lius, who was also the former head of athletes development at the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI).

Off court, Lius remembered Hadibowo as kind hearted, assertive and willing to help everyone.

"I never forgot when he helped me install the communication radio antenna at the national training camp in the 1980s. I asked him to help me because I was afraid to climb on to the roof of the athletes dormitory on Jl. Manila," Lius, who felt he had close ties with Hadibowo, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Hadibowo also for a brief time paired with Swie King at the 1983 SEA Games in Singapore.

Prior to that, the shuttler who was born and raised by the prestigious badminton club Djarum, also partnered briefly with Bobby Ertanto, Hafid Yusuf, Heryanto Saputra and Eddy Hartono. His achievements rocketed high after he paired with Christian, the now-national doubles team head coach.

His remains are currently at Rumah Duka Dharmais until Friday before a final cremation ceremony will be held at Oasis Lestari in Tangerang.

Hadibowo is survived by his wife Desy Lieana Soeharri and three children William, Alvin and Nathania Tans) Hadibowo.